Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-21-2017
Institution/Department
Operational Excellence; Nursing
Abstract
Delirium, an acute and fluctuating disturbance of consciousness and cognition, is a common manifestation of acute brain dysfunction in critically ill patients. Patients with delirium have longer hospital stays and a lower 6-month survival rate than do patients without delirium. Preliminary research suggests that delirium may be associated with cognitive impairment that persists months to years after discharge.
In a large acute care hospital, the cardiac intensive care staff became interested in mitigating their unit’s high delirium rate of ventilated patients. At baseline, many members of the healthcare team did not believe that delirium could be prevented and the predominant view was that critically ill patients were too ill to mobilize. An extensive literature review suggested that early mobilization was extremely beneficial in delirium reduction. As a result, the goal of this performance improvement project was to reduce the prevalence and severity of delirium through progressive mobilization.
Several barriers to preventing delirium were identified through a root cause analysis. Using improvement measures of operational excellence, a number of countermeasures were established. Several positive outcomes of this project were realized to include the development of an early mobility pathway and a bedside mobility assessment tool.
Next steps include a prospective study of the effect this KPI might have on decreasing duration of ventilation days as well as overall length of hospital stay.
Recommended Citation
Chaves, June; Canonico, Sam; Cheney, Will; Corey, Tammy; Fraser, Gil; Kowalewski, Alex; Low, Jen; Cardiac Intensive Care Unit; Pelletier, Haley; Palleschi, Cathy; Tyzik, Stephen; Nayak, Suneela; and Hanselman, Ruth, "Delirium Reduction Strategies For The Critically Ill" (2017). MaineHealth Maine Medical Center. 4.
https://knowledgeconnection.mainehealth.org/mmc/4
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